


Somewhere Between Forgetting and Remembering

by CwnAnnwn



Category: Naruto
Genre: AU from before Gaiden, F/M, Original villain - Freeform, Post-Canon from The Last: Naruto the Movie
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-25
Updated: 2015-09-24
Packaged: 2018-04-23 07:13:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4867856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CwnAnnwn/pseuds/CwnAnnwn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sasuke was leaving.</p><p>Though neither of them had discussed it in detail, and neither of them knew exactly when it would happen, it was an understanding between them. Like the sun setting and the changing tides, this was simply a fact of life. Sakura knew it, and tried not to let it bother her. He’d come back.</p><p>He always came back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Somewhere Between Forgetting and Remembering

**Author's Note:**

> YET ANOTHER OF MY SHITTY STORIES.

Sasuke was leaving.

Though neither of them had discussed it in detail, and neither of them knew exactly when it would happen, it was an understanding between them. Like the sun setting and the changing tides, this was simply a fact of life. Sakura knew it, and tried not to let it bother her. He’d come back.

He always came back.

But right then, he was here. He was in his family’s house, with her, and their daughter, the not-even-two-year-old Sarada, who was asleep in the next room. And he’d be here for the next few days, since Sakura was being called away to Sunagakure.

She bustled around the kitchen.

“We’ve got enough of Sarada’s food for a while. I made extra, just in case. If you run out, call Ino. She can make it.”

“I know how,” Sasuke asserted. Sakura looked up at him, smiling.

“You just don’t want to call Ino over.”

A shrugged shoulder was her response. She rolled her eyes, then gazed over towards where Sarada’s room was.

“I want to tell her goodbye, but she’s been so fussy lately, I don’t want to wake her up. We just got her down.”

“I’ll tell her.”

“Aww! You’re so sweet,” Sakura sighed, raising up on her toes to kiss her husband’s cheek. She interlaced her fingers with his. “It’s not like you’re going anywhere until I get back. I’ll see you both in a few days.”

They walked to the front door hand-in-hand. Just before Sakura crossed the threshold, Sasuke pulled her back to give her a brief kiss. When they parted, they were both smiling.

“Want me to tell Gaara you said hi?” Sakura quipped.

Sasuke’s smile dissipated.

“I’m going to tell Gaara you said hi.”

Sasuke rolled his eyes and let go of her hand. He poked her forehead.

“Stay safe.”

“Of course.” She turned, waving behind her as she went. “Be back soon, darling!”

* * *

One day.

Two days.

Before dawn of the third day, Sasuke was awakened by a sense of urgency and someone pounding on the door.

“Sasuke! Sasuke!”

It was Naruto.

Out of bed, across the house, door open in an instant. Sasuke was half ready to strangle Naruto for doing this so early, and half on edge because he was waking him up this early, pounding on the door.

The latter won over when he saw Naruto’s face.

Panic? Yes. Fear? Possibly.

Shouting and running and pounding had tired him a bit, for Naruto was panting, just temporarily rendered unable to speak, so Sasuke took the opportunity to ask.

“What is it?”

“Sakura.”

Time slowed. Stopped. An eternity came and went before Naruto finished his sentence, all the while Sasuke came up with a hundred possibilities, all of them terrible.

“Sakura is missing.”

* * *

Hinata came for Sarada while Sasuke and Naruto raced to the office of the Hokage. Kakashi was behind the desk looking tired and very, very grim.

“They never arrived at Sunagakure,” he began before Sasuke could ask. “Sakura’s team was supposed to meet with a team of Wind shinobi at the border. It would appear that both teams were intercepted before the rendezvous. Of the eight total that were supposed to meet, only four have been found.” Something in Kakashi’s expression changed then. “All dead but one.”

“Where is he?” Naruto barked. “Where is this one?”

“Dead now,” said another voice. Temari was standing off to one side. “I led the team that Gaara sent out when he realized something was wrong. We found two of our own slaughtered just before the rendezvous point. Two Konoha shinobi were found less than a kilometer away. One was already dead, and the other fatally wounded. He told us what he could.” She shook her head. “It didn’t help.”

“What did he say.” Not a question. A demand. The ice in Sasuke’s tone was palpable.

“No identifying marks. Black body-suits. He said they came out of nowhere, and that they were outnumbered, ten to four. They grabbed the first one to die, a young jonin, and threatened to kill her if their demands weren’t met.”

“What demands?” Naruto asked.

Temari shook her head again. “None. It was a trick. I guess they just needed everyone to stay still for a second. He told us that what happened next  was having a sword thrust through his gut while watching his teammate’s throat be slit. The next thing he knew, though, Sakura was trying to heal him. The two of them were the only ones there. And then, suddenly, she was gone. No bodies of the black suits, no bodies of Sakura or the other Leaf shinobi. Some signs of a struggle, but that’s it.”

“We have to find her!” Naruto pounded his fist against the wall. Sasuke’s jaw was set tight; he tried to contain his own rage and frustration, focusing on Kakashi and waiting for orders.

The rage would come later. The breakdown would come later. Later, after a week-long search ends in absolutely no leads. Later, after coming back home and retrieving Sarada, and holding her, he remembered that Sakura hadn’t even told her daughter goodbye.

Now, she may never have the chance.

* * *

The searches continued, but as time wore on and resources were to be directed elsewhere, they became less and less frequent.

A year passed, and the body of one of the Wind shinobi was found horribly mutilated, strung up on a cliff in the virtual no-man’s land between the Land of Wind and Land of Earth, far, far away from where he disappeared. No witnesses. No clues.

Two more years passed, and the other Leaf shinobi was found, dead, in the Land of Frost. Her body was frozen, but it appeared that suicide, slit wrists, were the true cause of death. Nobody knew how long she’d been there.

Neither Sakura nor the other Wind shinobi were found, dead or alive.

* * *

Five years after the disappearance, Sasuke was in the Hidden Leaf village. He’d never left, except on missions like the one from which he’d just returned.

Sore and exhausted, he came back to his empty house, shed the uncomfortable gear he had on until he was down to his shirt and pants, and passed out on the bed.

Less than an hour later, he was awakened by someone lightly shaking him.

“Papa. Papa.”

He opened his eyes to meet little Sarada’s gaze. She smiled, relieved.

“You came back.”

Ever since he’d told her, due to her constant questioning and pressing, that her mother had gone on a mission and never come back, Sarada reacted this way every time he came home after a mission.

She climbed up in bed next to him.

“How was Shikamaru’s?” he asked.

Sarada pouted. “Shikadai can be a real jerk. He thinks he’s so smart.” She smiled again. “But Miss Temari made us cakes! I brought one home for you. In the kitchen.”

Sasuke smiled, just barely, just softly. “Thank you,” he said, poking his daughter’s forehead.

A shadow passed by the window. Sasuke sat up quickly. “Sarada,” he ordered, “Wait here.”

An Anbu agent was waiting at the door.

“The Hokage requires your attendance. He is at the hospital.”

“What’s happened?”

“The Hokage is not injured. But you are required at the hospital. It is urgent.”

Sasuke hurried back to his room, pulling on his gear. “Sarada, I’ll be back soon.”

He collected his shoes at the door and followed the Anbu.

* * *

Shikamaru was standing outside of the door to the room, waiting. When Sasuke arrived, he stopped him.

“Sasuke.”

“Where’s Naruto?”

“In there,” Shikamaru nodded at the door, but held up a hand when Sasuke tried to pass him. “Sasuke, don’t. I need to tell you what’s going on.”

He waited.

“It’s Sakura. They found her.”

Shikamaru grabbed for him, told him to stop, but Sasuke pushed right past him and into the room. The room full of people with somber expressions, surrounding a bed.

The woman in the bed looked like his wife, but also didn’t. Pink hair, longer than it had ever been, hid the face of a woman who was a little too thin. She sat in the bed, knees pulled to her chest, but when Sasuke entered, she shifted her gaze from the bedsheets to him.

He froze when he met those jade eyes. His wife’s eyes, but not his wife’s eyes. Wide, bright eyes. Searching. Finding nothing.

Sasuke tore his own gaze from hers to look to Naruto for an explanation, but his best friend avoided him. It was Shikamaru who answered the unspoken question.

“She doesn’t remember us.”

 


End file.
